“There’s spurts. Yeah, there’s some great looks and there’s some good things, but that’s not our hockey. We check well. Sometimes we seem to for whatever reason let the foot off the gas pedal at certain times that come back to bite us.”
While ideal, the Wild picking up where they left off wasn’t realistic.
They’re missing key players to injury, with forwards Mats Zuccarello and Nico Sturm sidelined since training camp. Plus, the changes they did make weren’t small: The Wild had six players 22 years old or younger on their opening-night roster, and four are still here; three play regularly, including two on defense in 19-year-old Zeev Buium and 21-year-old David Jiricek.
Growing pains were inevitable, but it’s the lack of cohesiveness that’s jarring, and that’s indicative of the whole rather than the sum of the parts.
Against the Penguins, the Wild finally played well in the first period and earned a score that matched, leading at the intermission for only the third time this season. But they faded in the second and were outmatched in the third when the game was on the line, giving up three goals to flip a tie into a rout.
“I don’t have an answer for you,” Foligno said. “It’s a lot of looking for someone else to do it. Some lines, there’s just a lot of disconnect. We talk about boring hockey. We’re not even playing that style that we used to. It’s frustrating in that sense.